The Broken Pitcher

The Broken Pitcher
Sweet Nothings
The Abduction of Psyche
The British Are Coming
Artoo Detoo followed Luke's gesture, then beeped once and waddled over theboxy construction. Finding the proper cord, he automatically flipped open a paneland plugged the triple prongs into his face. Threepio had walked over to the large cistern, which was filled almost full witharomatic cleansing oil. With a remarkably humanlike sigh he lowered himselfslowly into the tank. "You two behave yourselves," Luke cautioned them as he moved to a small two-man sky hopper. A powerful little suborbital spacecraft, it rested in the hangarsection of the garage-workshop. "I've got work of my own to do." Unfortunately, Luke's energies were still focused on his farewell encounter withBiggs, so that hours later he had finished few of his chores. Thinking about hisfriend's departure, Luke was running a caressing hand over the damaged port fin ofthe 'hopper—the fin he had damaged while running down an imaginary Tie fighter inthe wrenching twists and turns of a narrow canyon. That was when the projectingledge had clipped him as effectively as an energy beam. Abruptly something came to a boil within him. With atypical violence he threwa power wrench across a worktable nearby. "It just isn't fair!" he declared to no onein particular. His voice dropped disconsolately. "Biggs is right. I'll never get outof here. He's planning rebellion against the Empire, and I'm trapped on a blight of afarm."